


The Aztecs and The Merman

by PseudonymousBotched



Series: Gallifins [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gallifins, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Doctor, mermaid au, merman au, the doctor uses they/them pronouns, very slight rewrite of "the aztecs"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-14 02:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11198619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PseudonymousBotched/pseuds/PseudonymousBotched
Summary: This is a very slight rewrite of The Aztecs. What if the tunnel that they used to gain access to the tomb was constantly flooded and used for irrigation and only someone who could breathe water could access it? It'll make the most sense if you've seen the episode.





	The Aztecs and The Merman

The Doctor tried to pry off the stubborn panel with his cane, but it wouldn't budge. It was a shame, really, their getting on in years. In their younger days they knew they would have had the elaborately carved stone block off in a matter of seconds.

Someone was coming! They put down their cane and crept to a tall clump of grasses. At least that was something they were still good at, sneaking around silently.

“Doctor. Doctor?” someone whispered.

“Ian? I can't move that an inch!” They said lowly back.

“Here, let me try.” Ian (dressed in Aztec warrior clothes, how precious) hopped up to the side of the temple and grasped the panel. The Doctor looked around watchfully, fidgeting with their cane. With a stiff heave, Ian soon had the panel loose.

“Yes, it does move,” Ian said. 

“Good.” The Doctor kept fidgeting and looking around, bringing their hand to their chin and looking out into the shadows. The night shadows in the pleasure garden made it hard to tell, but they couldn't shake the feeling that Ian had been followed.

No matter, Ian was carefully walking the panel backward now, revealing a small square tunnel in the side of the temple. “There is a tunnel!” Ian exclaimed softly.

“Yes,” they said, reaching out a hand, unsure how to help. Ian set the panel down and leaned forward to investigate. 

The Doctor started forward. “You stand guard. And put the panel back into place behind me.”

“No, no, no, I'll go,” insisted Ian.

“Just me,” protested the Doctor. “From what Cameca said, only I am suitably equipped to handle the conditions inside this tunnel.”

“Both of us, then.”

“You'd drown,” they said flatly. “This tunnel is also used for irrigation.”

That shut Ian up, and he stood back as the Doctor somewhat awkwardly climbed inside the tiny square hole. “Hold my cane,” the Doctor said, handing it and a small silver torch to Ian. “Oh, and take this too.” 

“You might need this,” Ian said.

“What do you expect me to do with it? Hold it in my teeth?”

It was dark and damp inside the tunnel, and it smelled of mold. The Doctor made a face but felt around. They were standing on a ledge just inside the entrance, and the water began straight away. 

Well. That made things easy. The Doctor eased themself down into the lukewarm water, floating chest deep, and switched off the perception filter disguised as a signet ring.

With a crackling shimmer of reality, their houndstooth-pantsed legs were replaced by a sky blue mermaid tail. They took a moment to stretch in their true form, pale fins fluttering, then they took a deep breath and dove beneath the surface. With a flip of their fins, they were off. This tunnel was rather not to their liking, all musty and dark, but they were the only one who could swim up it and open the tomb for the others right now.

Outside, Ian watched with fascination. He'd only seen the Doctor in their true form a handful of times. After the Doctor swam out of sight, blue scales vanishing in the twilight, he reluctantly pushed the panel back into place. He wasn't at all sure it was the right thing to do, but the Doctor was right, they couldn't risk drawing attention to themselves. 

The panel slid into place with a satisfying thunk, and Ian walked away, resisting the urge to whistle like a schoolboy. (He didn't notice that from the same clump of grass the Doctor had taken refuge in earlier rose another figure, an Aztec man named Ixta that he had met earlier in the day. He had been followed after all.)

It was all up to the Doctor now.

The Doctor swam for meters and meters down the tunnel, one hand trailing across the slimy bricks, before finding the way up and out. They suspected it wouldn't be so easily found, so when it turned out to be a very obvious sliding panel decorated with glyphs they were ironically a little irate. They hadn't even had to use their sonic screwdriver.

They applied a little shoulder power and slid the panel open, which opened more easily than a secret panel in a rusty old temple had any right to. Heaving themself up was more of a challenge, especially with no legs to help them up. With no torch, it was especially hard to see where they were. 

After crawling about in the dark for a moment, they determined they were on land enough to use the perception filter again and switched on the signet ring. The mermaid tail was replaced by legs again, which was a distinctly uncomfortable feeling for the Doctor but one they had reconciled themself to long ago. They attempted to stand up but banged their head and shoulders on a very low ceiling. So they would have to crawl.

The level of light was too low for even their eyes to see anything, but they had a very good sense of hearing. They took out the sonic screwdriver and buzzed it for a few seconds. From the returning echoes, they could tell they were in a very small corridor that was going upward at an incline of about thirty degrees. Very well then. 

“You know what would be a good idea, old man,” they told themself as they began to alligator crawl up the corridor. “A sonic screwdriver that lights up on the end. Functional and decorative all at once.”

Eventually the corridor ended in a square of light, and the Doctor found themself tumbling out underneath a tomb – the same tomb that had started this whole misadventure! See now, they were underneath the man that Barbara had taken that damned snake bracelet from, and there – there was their beloved TARDIS! And there was the door back outside the tomb and to the outside world.

The door...

Now if only there was a way to rig the door so that it could be opened from the other side, the side on the outside, then the Doctor could go and fetch the others any old time rather than having to wait on them to assemble...

Their mind was always adroit at solving mechanical problems, so they started examining the door to see how it worked. It seemed like a fairly simple pulley system, and if they could get their hands on some rope, then they could hijack it for their own purposes. 

A quick search of the premises turned up a length of some satiny material that, while it certainly wasn't rope, seemed like it would hold up well enough. They made a slipknot and tossed it up to the mechanism, praying to whatever gods were listening that the material would hold as they tightened it. 

Then they leaned on the door, tilting the huge slab forward and opening it. They brought the length of material with them, thankfully it was long enough to coil on the ground underneath the door and their harebrained scheme was going to work.

“Doctor?” a woman's voice came from nearby, and the Doctor turned to see Barbara approaching. “How did you come from in there?”

“There is an irrigation tunnel from down in the garden into the tomb,” the Doctor said.

“And you swam all that way?”

“Doctor?” Ian came running into the temple. 

“My dear Chesterton, what is the matter?” said the Doctor. “You look dreadful.”

“You're the one who's all wet,” observed Ian. “I was followed by Ixta, but I managed to get rid of him.”

“We only need Susan now. Where is she?” asked the Doctor.

“Why, she refused to marry the victim of the next human sacrifice,” Barbara said. “So she's to be punished.”

“Is she still at that seminary?”

“I think so, but she'll be heavily guarded.”

Ian spoke up. “I'll get her out. You stay here.”

“Thank you. And watch out for that man Ixta,” said the Doctor.

Ian handed the Doctor back their cane, and ran off again. 

“Young folk,” they thought to themself, not all together unfondly. “Always running about. Such a display of energy.”


End file.
